1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to dice games, and more particularly to combination dice and board games, and still more particularly to an improved version of the well-known game of Shut-the-Box, which employs two levels of horizontally placed tiles numbered 1 through 9, which singly or additively correlate to the indicia or pips revealed on a par of dice after a throw.
2. Discussion of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR §§1.97, 1.98:
Dice are the oldest gaming implements known to man. Their precise origins are unknown but they have a long and rich history nonetheless. Sophocles (496-406 BC), the Greek poet, claimed that dice were invented by Palamedes during the siege of Troy. Herodotus (b. 484 BC?), historian and an acquaintance of Sophocles, claimed that they were invented by the Lydians of Asia Minor. Both wise men were wrong, as dice date back even further than this. Egyptian tombs dating to 2000 BC have been found containing dice. Dice reputedly dating to 6000 BC have been uncovered in archaeological excavations.
Dice were developed independently by many ancient cultures around the world and did not simply originate and spread from any one place. In ancient times the throw of a dice was not just considered to be luck, the outcome was believed to be controlled by the gods, and casting dice was used to make decisions about dividing inheritances, choosing rulers, and in divination and prognostication. In ancient Rome, the goddess Fortuna, daughter of Zeus (known to gamblers as Lady Luck), was believed to determine the outcome of a throw.
Before standard cubical dice became common, ancient peoples would use fruit stones, sets of flat sticks, sea shells, nut shells, and pebbles to generate random results for games. These were probably adopted from witch doctors and shaman who would throw them to gain insight and knowledge of the unknown and things to come. Animal knucklebones were the next step in the evolution of dice. The Greeks and Romans used sheep anklebones as well as the more developed cubical spotted dice. The Romans called the four-sided anklebones Tali or Astaragali and the standard six-sided dice Tesserae. The Arab word for knucklebones is the same as that for dice, and playing with dice is known as “rolling the bones” to this day.
Of course, many games have always been played with dice, the dice being employed as random number generators. The pharaohs of ancient Egypt were portrayed playing dice and both the Romans and Greeks were keen dice players. Roman Emperors notoriously played and gambled with dice compulsively. Dice games are known to have been popular in Europe during the Middle Ages. In England, both Richard the Lion Heart and King John gambled with dice, and King Henry VIII lost the bells of old St Paul's church on a roll of the dice.
Dice games have been played in English inns since at least the 15th century. Dominoes descended from dice in China and spread to the Occident in the 18th century, while standard dice became the vital component of a vast array of commercial board games in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Dice games have been especially successful in the arena of gaming and so-called “pub games.” Most such games involve a wager of some sort, a drinking dare, perhaps, or a monetary stake. Games employing dice include such well known board games as backgammon. Another is Shut the Box, the dice and board game upon which the present invention improves.
It is not known with certainty where or how Shut the Box originated, though the most credible accounts suggest an origin in Northern France and identify Normandy or the Channel Islands as the cradle. It appears that it has been played in this region for at least two hundred years and is especially popular among sailors and fishermen. Evidence of the game in England has but a recent history, dating back only to the middle of the twentieth century, and since most games of like kind are referred to in a variety of literature, the absence of such references seems a good indicator that the game did not originate in England. In fact, Timothy Finn in his “Pub Games of England” says that the game was brought to the South of England from the Channel Islands as recently as 1958.
Apparently, Shut the Box has several names, one of which is Canoga. An old pub gambling favorite, traditional Shut the Box uses two dice and a special wooden playing tray. The tray features the numbers 1-9 in a row, each of which has a hinged tile with a number that can be flipped to obscure (or “shut”) the number. Sliding a cover over the number is an alternative way to obscure or shut the number. A player's turn involves repeatedly throwing the dice and shutting or covering a number or numbers after every throw, the numbers selected by matching the number total with the total pips showing on the dice thrown. The turn ends when no numbers can be covered upon the throw of the dice, at which point the player's total is calculated. The overriding goal is to completely cover all numbers or “shut the box” which results in the best possible score of zero.
The drawback of the original game is that it can end rather quickly, perhaps as little as 15 seconds, if the dice are especially uncooperative. Additionally, strategies are limited with but one set of nine numbers.
Games related to Shut the Box have been devised. Most notable among them is U.S. Pat. No. 6,942,218, to Davis, et al., which discloses a domino and dice game having a series of dominos that correspond to the possible counts generated by a pair of conventional cubical dice. The dominos are initially positioned face up, and the dice are tossed. Dominos having counts corresponding to the resulting count on the dice, are turned face down. Play continues by a single player until no more domino moves are possible, whereupon play transfers to the next player. Scoring is made according to the number of pips displayed on the remaining face up dominos after a turn is completed, with low score winning the round after all players have played. The game also includes a playing box having at least one row of dominos pivotally secured across the box and a dice tossing area. The playing box may include additional domino rows for doubles and blank dominos, if desired. It is respectfully submitted, however, that the '218 patent does not disclose, teach, suggest, show, or otherwise render obvious the invention described herein.